


In the Name of the Unnamed

by Leni



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Dark, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 14:52:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2432786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jefferson wakes up in Storybrooke, he <i>does </i>kill her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Name of the Unnamed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tigriswolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/gifts).



> Written for TigrisWolf at [Comment Fic](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/541040.html?thread=76927344#t76927344). Prompt: **When Jefferson wakes up in Storybrooke, he _does_ kill her. **

As soon as Jefferson wakes, he goes looking for her ( _that sweet little queen, the heartbroken lover, the bitch that cheated him and stranded him a world away, straight into her loving mother's arms_ ) and finds her all smiles and dripping sweetness talking to a boy about Grace's age.

The child isn't scared, he notices.

The child doesn't know she is poison and vengeance and she'll destroy what she touches and will laugh as it crumbles away.

The child doesn't belong, he finds out.

And most importantly: _the child has a father._

They are stories, cut-outs of their world glued into this one. It makes sense that they repeat their patterns, and so if there's a child, a father, and Regina, it makes sense that tragedy follows.

(But he's _not_ a story. He's _real_. He has the memories to prove it.)

Jefferson follows her to the campsite, watches as she makes her favorite puppet dig the grave and put the body inside.

( _poor little boy,_ he thinks. _poor little Grace_ What are children to do without their parents to care for them?)

The puppet's eyes are hollow as he fulfills the assigned task. No grief. No guilt. No sorrows. The huntsman is gone, and his mirror-image is broken and all askew. It doesn't even know it was once a man, so it doesn't mourn for all that's lost.

Were he not a father, Jefferson might even envy the other man.

***

He follows the queen (the little lonely queen, again, but without the taste of hope to sweeten her little smiles) and watches her glee at her triumph, her borrowed victory over happiness.

(And it must be borrowed - it must!)

Regina, the evil. Regina, the heartless. Regina Mills, her office door says.

The slayer of fathers.

The maker of orphans.

How can he let her live?

***

It takes Jefferson a few months to get used to the idea that there's no magic in this world. It's not just his hats that are useless, not just the portals that refuse to be summoned. Here, he's just a man with a huge mansion and a huge scar across his throat.

Therefore, he realizes in the middle of a second year in Storybrooke, Regina must be just a woman as well.

She can't be that bad, Jefferson thinks, already planning, when she's made it so easy for him.

***

He goes to Rumpelstiltskin because he knows his old partner will relish the memory once he wakes up. Or perhaps he won't, one never knows with the old imp, but the deed will be done all the same, and Rumpelstiltskin has never been one to cry over spilled blood.

Mr. Gold is earnest, and somber, and he doesn't ask why he's looking for a weapon in their peaceful little town.

(Rumpelstiltskin may be asleep, but his love of chaos is not.) 

Neither does the old man bother to mock out loud Jefferson's hesitation over his choice.

(Though the arch of his eyebrows cackle in mirth every time Jefferson says the wrong thing.)

Eventually the counter at the pawnshop fills with knives, and blunt objects, and a variety of guns that invariably feel awkward in Jefferson's hand. They finally hit onto a sword, and Jefferson whistles as he goes back home.

***

It goes like this:

Regina is invincible. ("You can't harm me, you idiot.")

Regina is haughty ("How do you dare?")

Regina is convinced of her invulnerability. ("What about your little Grace, Jefferson? What would she say?)

***

Grace. 

_Paige. Grace. Grace-Paige, his little girl_

Grace is the end of this road, of course. Can't be a father without a child; can't have the child while Regina is looking.

Obviously, Regina is the roadblock that must be taken away.

***

It goes like this:

"My daughter isn't here," he tells her. "You made sure of that."

...and...

"I'm the only one who remembers. Who else would dare?"

...and...

"It doesn't hurt after the first cut," he promises her, baring his neck to her horrified gaze.

***

Regina is wrong.

***

Jefferson calls onto the puppet for his services. It yells and threatens, but there's no heart in it (of course there's not) and in the end it's easy to pull its strings and convince him of what's best. Better not to panic the people, they conclude. Better to let them think Madam Mayor is on a long leave. Better that she be remembered at her best, instead of as the pile of flesh on her no-longer-pristine office floor.

They bury the body in the same campsite, now filled with twin unmarked graves, a little revenge in the name of the unnamed fathers that have been destroyed on the way to this world.

The head, Jefferson takes to his home (because he does owe the Queen of Hearts a little something for her kind hospitality, and he isn't fool enough to believe she won't collect) and wonders which hat will fit it best in the meanwhile.

Regina always liked looking her best, after all.

 

The End  
10/10/14


End file.
